Announced on Nov. 14, the upgraded HealthPresence allows patients to
get care when rural or remote locations may prevent in-person physician
visits. The telehealth platform allows patients and clinicians to
connect using audio, video and remote medical-monitoring devices. Aging
patients and those with chronic conditions who are unable to travel can
benefit from HealthPresence, according to Cisco.

New deployment models for HealthPresence include business to
business as well as hosted/multitenant capability to allow up to 120
instances of HealthPresence on the same physical server.

In addition, with support for a redundant server and an external
Network File System (NFS), one server could take over for another
automatically if a failure occurs.

New security features include the ability to define a policy for
authenticated users, either by using an existing Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP) server or having HealthPresence perform the
authentication.

Cisco has also added an appointment queuing feature, chat collaboration and an API interface into electronic health records (EHRs).

As part of the HealthPresence workflow, doctors can connect HD audio and video feeds to diagnostic data, which feeds into EHRs.

Medical professionals use HealthPresence in hard-to-reach areas such as Raichur, India.

"Faced with increased patient loads, rising cost and a lack of
medical professionals, health systems globally are challenged to meet
demands for quality care for their specific market needs," Vishal
Gupta, vice president and general manager, Cisco Global Healthcare
Solutions, said in a statement. "Cisco HealthPresence is making it
possible for patients to connect with the physician or specialist most
suited for their needs, whether it's in a medical kiosk in a remote
village or a mobile cart in an urban hospital."

Doctors can check in on patients for preventive care rather than
patients traveling a whole day to get to a doctor, English said.

In addition, patients with conditions such as diabetes are able to
see endocrinologists remotely when distance might prevent in-person
care, she said.

The product consists of a centralized appliance that runs
HealthPresence Connect 2.0 client software and transmits medical device
data from one end to another. HealthPresence also provides simplified
management and enhanced reporting.

Compatibility with ePen technology allows patients to write prescriptions and submit them electronically.

On Oct. 26 Cisco announced its TelePresence VX Clinical Assistant,
which connects to HealthPresence. The VX Clinical Assistant is a mobile
telemedicine cart that allows for HD video collaboration between
doctors and patients.